Who really read the terms and conditions, I know I don’t. Companies like Facebook and Instagram purposely make them long because they know the average person is not going to sit and read hundreds of pages of boring material, instead we go straight to “Accept” or “Agree”. Thus making us ignorant to what we agreed to and unaware of how our data is being handled.
The relation between the economic systems and the system of government control that we see in the documentary is that the companies we shop at are collecting and storing our day to day transactions and selling it to the government, who then goes and use it against us if we are perceived as a “threat”, in the name of national security of course.
Power is distributed unevenly in this society, the people who can afford to pay for highly sensitive data or information are those who have the most power. The affect of this uneven distribution has a negative impact on individual well being and their sense of freedom. Knowing one’s personal data is for sale is very upsetting, we put our trust in those companies and expect them to be ethical about our data and not sell it to the highest bidder.
The three stories that shocked me from the documentary was :
- Instagram being able to use your pictures and videos and sell them but don’t compensate you in return.
- Tom-Tom the navigation services company, was helping the police in Netherlands to set up speed traps by selling them consumer information.
- A writer who was doing online research to develop stories for a show was red flagged for being a potential murderer based on his search history.
(A very interesting article titled ” 13 Ways Policy And Politics Stole Your Privacy In 2016” goes into a detail about companies violating consumers privacy.)
1) Are you going start reading the fine prints for new or existing accounts?
2) Will you take more consideration in what you say online knowing that the government is watching?
interesting post.
The answer for my first question is I will do my best. Really, I would like to be more responsible and read the terms and conditions sections before just accepting them. I can blame and say companies such as Facebook do their conditions pages too long on purpose in order to make users just go down and agree. But, I have to acknowledge that my responsibility as user is to make sure what I am accepting to. I have to take care of my privacy.
1. With the emergence of new social media in the future, my only option would be to agree to the terms because that is what’s needed to be up to date with the current world and by not accepting it I would be set back.
2. Knowing this fact I will continue to use the internet same as I do today because I am not doing anything illegal, even though it is invading my privacy, I don’t see any other option unless google starts charging a subscription fee for using its search based site to protect my information to make up for there AD based revenue.
I really enjoyed reading your post. Even though I learned a lot through this article most likely, I still will not read the terms and conditions. Majority of the time I assume that these contracts state that they will have access to our information so I choose to filter myself based on what platforms I want to use and only post the information I am willing to give. Also, these terms and conditions are too long to read and I am usually in a time constraint.
Nice blog it really points out the highlights of the video. I honestly don’t have the time to read 6 pages long of term and conditions. I am aware now that a lot of my information is probably being shared or used without my consent but that’s why I’m very careful about what I post and what I search for. And as long as they don’t steal my identification I’m good. =)
It was interesting reading your blog. It is unfortunate that I often don’t read all the terms and conditions before pressing “Accept” since in most cases am driven with what I want to do with the platform oblivious of my privacy being stolen. However, after reading your post I affirm to myself that I will start reading fine prints for new and existing accounts in order to track back my privacy.
Everyone should be aware and cautious of what they put out on the internet. It is also true that if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about. For example, if someone did not want anyone to know where they are at a specific time of the day, then they should realize that posting to social media is not a good idea. For me, I have a good sense of what to put out and what not to, because no matter what the circumstances are, if you put something on the internet, it will remain embedded forever.
Interesting take on the documentary! I agree with your comparison on government control and economic systems. Unfortunately, I do not think that I will be inclined to read the fine print of the terms and conditions. There is just too much legal jargon! As for being surveilled by the government, I have nothing to hide. They can search away!